What is Miniature Gardening?

“Big things come in small packages.”

It’s so true, especially when it comes to gardening in miniature.

It’s just like a full-sized garden
but it’s in miniature!

Small scale trees and plants are combined with in-scale accessories and patios to make a real, living mini garden that can grow and weave itself together for years – just like a full sized garden.

Miniature gardens can be grown in a container, or in-ground in your garden beds, with minimal care. When planted correctly, the plants and trees stay in scale with each other to create a sustainable, true garden in miniature. 

Just like a  full-sized garden, growing a miniature garden gets better and more rewarding as you move through the seasons.

And, just like a full-sized garden, it grows, needs to be watered and cared for, and the plants need to be divided or replaced every few years. It’s still “gardening!”

What are miniature garden plants? 

Miniature garden trees and shrubs that we recommend for this new hobby are called “dwarf” and “miniature” plants. These two terms describe the growth rate of the plant, not the mature size.

The miniature trees and shrubs are paired with small-leafed, slow-growing ground covers (we like to call them miniature bedding plants) that have the same light, water and placement requirements.

The plants we call “miniature garden plants” are often misunderstood by the average garden-center-worker so we need to speak their language to find the ones that work for our hobby:

For Trees and Shrubs:

– Miniature or Dwarf Conifers
– Baby trees and shrubs – preferably in 4” pots
– Pre-bonsai trees (once they get “bonsai’d” they price goes way up)

For the “bedding plants”
– Small-leafed ground covers
– Small-leafed sedums
– Rockery plants – slow-growing
– Alpine plants (naturally small and slow growing)

“Right plant for the right place” – the #1 garden rule – applies in miniature too!

For Indoor Miniature Gardens:

The selection is somewhat limited for miniature gardening simply because a lot of indoor plants don’t look like miniature versions of the full-sized plants. Indoor plants are tropical plants that like to stay 60 degrees or above, all year long. Some small-leaved plants and succulents work, as well as some indoor conifers or baby trees. 

See what’s in stock today at Your Miniature Garden Center Store. (Not all plants are available at all times.)

Where can I find the right plants for miniature gardening?

I had the same problem which is why we started Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center, the world’s only online miniature garden store.

At Two Green Thumbs, we specialize in plants and trees that WORK for gardening in miniature. Some gardens can last up to 10 years or more in a container with the right combination! 

Whether you are a railroad gardener, a fairy gardener or you’re a miniature gardener, we got you covered! TwoGreenThumbs.com, where shipping plants to the lower 48 & Alaska safely, all year long, since 2004.

Where can I find the accessories and patio materials for miniature gardening?

That was another reason we started our own store for the hobby! At Two Green Thumbs’ we focus on accessories that age well.

Our mini garden accessories either weather gracefully and still look like an authentic miniature, like our Adirondack furniture and cedar trellises, or we can re-stain or repaint them to give them another life and keep them out of the landfill. 

See the largest selection of miniature garden art and statuary on the Internet here. Use the menu to get to the pottery, equipment, water features and more.

Our patio materials are authentic. We use stone, small flagstone sheets and pebbles for our patios so they don’t weather or age. When you create a permanent flagstone patio with our Mini Patio Mix Kit, it will age just like any full-sized patio, but in miniature. It can be repaired or repurposed.

Even the way we put together our pebble patios, the tiny stones can be reclaimed from the miniature garden, so you can reuse them again and again. 

See the Two Green Thumbs’ Patio and Path department here.